Homestead Hill

Training for the Crow Pass Crossing continues; on Saturday Chester, Chris, Andrea, and I ran the Homestead Hill run. It's a great run that combines neighborhoods, primitive roads, technical trails, and a few hills (ok, its almost all hills). After an hour and fifty minutes (1:50), the GPS read 10 miles, which put us at just over ten minute miles. Not bad considering how technical the trail is.

This weekend the weather has been fantastic, clear sunny skies and temperatures reaching into the 60s. Is summer finally here? Well, if I know Anchorage in June, we have plenty of rain in store but any sun we can get we will take.

On Saturday morning, I met Andrea's co-clerk Jon at Westchester Lagoon to take some early morning bird pics on the mud flats. After 100 plus pictures, I got a few keepers, including this Mew Gull [edit: actually, I think its a Ring Billed Gull]. I was telling Jon that I actually can't stand taking pictures of birds (the whole birding thing kind of escapes me) and I didn't expect alot of pictures of gulls (kind of boring) but I was pleasantly surprised with this shot. The eyes are so cool. And gulls' white heads make them perfect in direct sun for practicing with exposure because they have a tendency to wash out.